Honestly, after five innings, this one looked over. Just like the other games in this series. But the Tigers bats once again woke up late and put a scare into the Giants’ bullpen and bench. Takumi Akiyama only lasted two innings after surrendering yet another first-inning home run, and Shintaro Fujinami served one up to…
We’re back in first! This was a true nail-biter, as the teams exchanged blows from the fourth inning on. Both teams also had bases-loaded chances that came up short, and both teams got big home runs from last year’s two biggest home run hitters. Kazuma Okamoto’s sixth-inning bomb was a dagger through the hearts of…
Through the top of the sixth, this one looked really lopsided, as though the Tigers were going to simply bow down to the Giants yet again… but somebody turned off the orange light and flipped on the yellow switch. Yuki Nishi missed his spot a few times in the middle innings, putting the team down…
Neither of these teams looked like the ones that combined for 27 hits and 13 runs on Tuesday. Perhaps that is a good thing, though, as it was getting a little old seeing our team falling deep into holes early in games. This time around, Masashi Itoh pitched masterfully, with the lone run he surrendered…
Nothing went well for the Tigers on this night, outside of the bottom of the fifth inning. The pitchers gave up a season-worst 17 hits to the worst-hitting team in the Central in one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in the Central. Many of the defenders, though not charged with errors, did not make plays…
As Seen in Daily Sports (Japanese) / デイリースポーツオンラインのコラムから I’ve only been following Japanese professional baseball for seven years, but in some ways, I am a kind of “veteran” in the foreign NPB fan society. Often when new fans come in, the first things they ask about are some of the major differences between the “new”…
There really is no such thing as a good time of year to slump, but the Hanshin Tigers really have looked lame since the All-Star break. Despite getting to play 15 games against the bottom half of the Central League, they have come up with just a 7-8 record, and have looked quite a bit…
Rookie Shoki Murakami put up some solid numbers on the farm for a good three-month stretch since his top-squad debut at the end of May. Unfortunately, it did not translate into an improvement on his numbers on this night. He allowed runs to score in all three of his innings of work, so despite recording…
Yuki Nishi continued to look for elusive career win #100, and while he started out reasonably well, and technically did produce a quality start (6 IP 3 R), the bullpen doubled the runs against in two innings of work, and captain Yusuke Ohyama failed to capitalize on three big chances with runners in scoring position:…
After yesterday’s embarrassing loss, the Tigers came out roaring on both ends. Joe Gunkel mowed down the first three batters he faced really quickly, and Koji Chikamoto smacked the first pitch in the bottom half of the inning over the wall. From there, the batters kept the foot on the pedal most of the night,…